Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I was very excited to receive this letter from Anjali. Not only is it the longest letter I have ever received from any of my Compassion children, but she wrote it by herself, for the very first time.

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Greetings to you in the Almighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am fine here. I hope same with you there. How is your health?

I received your letter. I feel very happy when I am reading your letter. My favorite subject is English. My favorite game is KhoKho I received your photos also. Photos are very beautiful. Badaling Great Wall is very nice to see. I like paper dolls very much. We have quarterly exams in this month. Pray for me. After examinations we have Pasara (?) holiday to schools.

But we have no holidays for Project. Project will conducting retreats in holidays. Our staff teach new songs. I like action songs. We written 1st and 2nd unit examinations. I got good marks in examinations.

We celebrated teachers day on September 5th. I given fruits and given flowers to my teachers. Teachers blessings us on that day. We celebrate teachers day because our great teacher's birthday on that day. He is our formal president also. His name is Dr. Sarre Palli Raolho Krishna.

I am praying for you and again thank you for your sponsorship.

Your loving child,M. Anjali

Best of all, this letter did not include the same pictures she has been drawing for two years!

Monday, October 24, 2011

I chose this woman in memory of dear Nora, who died recently...and also because she is in the Philippines, where my Correspondence child, Fred lives.

Nora is 56 years old. She is married with 1 child. Nora has a piece of land cultivated with vegetables and fruit trees, which in time can be harvested with the intention to sell. She has had this business for 10 years. She requested a loan of PHP 15,000 to buy insect sprays and fertilizers. She has been a member of HSPFI since 2010. In the future, Nora hopes to improve her business.

I chose Ivone because a widow with six children needs all the help she can get.

Ivone was born in the district of Boane, province of Maputo, southern Mozambique. She is a widow and the mother of six children, of which only one still attends school. She never had the opportunity to study for lack of financial conditions. She lives with her family in a house she owns and doesn't support anyone else.

She has been a businesswoman for over 35 years and earns an income of about 6.000mt a month. She uses it to pay for home expenses and saves part of it in her bank account.She has had loans in other banks (PROCREDIT) and has been able to pay them back without any difficulties. She first heard of Hluvuku through friends who are also clients of this institution. This is her first loan with Hluvuku. It is for 10.000mt, which she intends to use to purchase goods (oil, sugar, beans, etc.) in order to increase the volume of her merchandise.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Killadi Satyavathi is a 66 year old widow who lives in the village of Brahmadevam in coastal Andhra Pradesh. She has one son and three daughters, who are are married and living with their families. Satyavathi's husband passed away 2 years ago. She works as a daily laborer earning 2$ a day whenever she finds work. Until recently, she was able to successfully manage the household chores and work as a laborer. But her vision began to drop gradually, making it virtually impossible to carry on independently. She was depressed.

Satyavathi developed cataracts in both eyes, which were operated upon by Sankurathri Foundation. However, even after the surgery, she found that she needed corrective glasses in order to see well. Satyavathi, however, had no money to pay for the glasses, and thought she would continue without glasses.

Your donation, Beverly, enabled Sankurathri Foundation to provide a free pair of glasses to her. She can now perform her household chores and work as a laborer without depending on anyone.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Compassion has been nominated to be one of the organizations that is on the receiving end of donations coming from One Million for Good. I was thrilled to see Compassion made the final list of nominees.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Today came a new letter from Anjali, including another drawing. The strange thing about this child is that she draws the same thing every. single. time! This is her drawing today:

And this is compared to the last three drawings she sent:

At least this time she labeled what the various things are (though that looks suspiciously more like a "flag" than a "fig"!

The Sponsor Relation Assistant writes the letters for her:

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Anjali sends greetings to you in the Almighty name of Lord Jesus Christ. She says she is fine. she asks how you are? She asks how is your health? She says she is fine. She says she received your letter. She says American Princess stickers are very nice to see. She says photographs are very nice and beautiful. She says she is celebrating Friendship Day on August 7th. She says she will celebrate her Independence day on the 15th of August. She says her project celebrated "Thanksgiving Day" on July 1st. She says her project given Net, chair, and writing pad. She says she is praying for you and your famiy members. She says thank you for your love and support.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

There was a great move to adopt all of the kids from Ghana Project #232 last month. Compassion had posted videos of the center and many of the kids. I hadn't intended to take another child, but when I saw Theresa's face, I had to adopt her (check her picture in the right hand column).

We all have been waiting for the first letters to arrive, and mine did today. She is only 4, so she can't really write, but her social worker fills in a form for her and writes a brief letter.

My family: Esi Ariguamah (mother), Kwesi Essuman (Father) and brothers Kwame Essuman and Kojo Essuman.My Home: VillageMy Favorites: color: blue; food: rice and stew; Song: Gospel; Game: Ampe (this is apparently a popular game in Africa, since many of my children from different African countries list this as their favorite game. I have seen a video of it and I can't make heads or tails out of it!); Toy: Car; Pet: Cat (Well, she can't be ALL good! LOL!)

Message for my sponsor: Theresa and her family welcome you warmly into their lives. They say thank you for your presence in their lives.

Question for my sponsor: Do you have brothers and sisters? (I will lie and say no. Four years old is too young to know that my sister was killed in 1971!)

Prayer for My Sponsor:Theresa prays for a healthy living for you and your family.

Prayer Request from child: Pray for her to love school and learn seriously.

A drawing was also included, but it was so light it was almost invisible. Fortunately, thanks to PhotoShop, I was able to darken it so I could see what it looked like. Not bad, actually for 4 years old!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

There were two letters from Fred today, the first a thank you for his birthday gift. It is always amazing to me how much they are able to buy in their own country. I sent him $25.

Dear Auntie Sykes,

Christian greetings!

Thank you so much for loving my son. He was very happy during his birthday. He appreciates the gift very much. H received an amount of 1,055.50 We bought long pants, polo, sandals, underwear, t-shirt, short pants, biscuits and chocolate drinks. Fred is so excited to wear the new clothes for our coming church anniversary. Please pray that Fred would be growing into a grateful child. Until here.

Love,Fred's Mother

The second letter was written three days later.

Dear Auntie Sykes,

Christian greetings!

May this letter find you in good health. Thank you for loving my child. We are so grateful for your effort, especially for the little book.

Fred is in school now. They had vacation last month of April and May. They started classes on June and they had the Vacation Bible School last May. We are so happy that we know someone like you who knows how to appreciate even small things.

Fred also likes funny jokes and he smiles whenever his classmates are making funny stuffs. He is smiling upon receiving a letter from you. I also smile whenever they are doing good at home.

Please continue to pray that Fred would improve more in his character.

When I went onto Our Compassion today, I noticed that Anjali's photo had been updated, so I called Compassion and asked for a .jpg. She looks so pretty!

So much more grown up than the little girl I first agreed to sponsor!

I chose her originally because she had a fat looking face and as a fat kid myself, I knew that they were frequently the last chosen, so she found a spot in my heart. But she certainly is a slim and beautiful girl today!

Monday, October 10, 2011

I held off answering the four letters which had come in in the last two weeks because I had been having such a great time sending baby pictures to my Compassion children using Compassion's new email stationery. But today was the day I wrote to all of them, except for Wainaina, in Kenya, because I sent him a long letter via e-mail with football pictures included.

I started writing at about 10:30 a.m. and it was nearly 3 before I finished. It doesn't always take that long, but this time I had letters to answer, so a boilerplate letter wouldn't work. I also had gifts to send, each child getting something different, whether a coloring book, stickers, games, flash cards, or whatever, suited to that particular child. I sent one girl a Bingo game. I hope it goes through!

It also takes longer because of the age difference. The three little guys get short, simple letters, but the older kids, especially Shallon in Uganda, are writing long interesting letters asking probing questions and it takes longer to answer her.

By the time I finished I had a fat flat rate package to mail, which I can't mail until tomorrow, since today is Columbus day.

I'm good on snail mail letters now for a month, though I'm sure there will be one or two e-mails between now and then, if I get interesting photos to send.

This is what one of the new e-mail letters looks like.

You choose the particular design you want to use for writing, write your letter, include 1-3 photos and press send. Compassion takes the letters, translates them, prints them and sends off to the field office (or maybe they are printed at the field office; I'm not sure!). Eventually they get to the kids. I haven't had feedback from them yet--probably not for another month, at least--but I'm curious to see how the kids feel at the other end, receiving these pretty new letters!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Today there was a very nice letter from Briana in Haiti. I think it's a little confusing for her to keep all of our family relationships straight!

Warm greetings to you, Beverly Sykes. How are you doing with Jesus. Briana does not feel too bad, thanks to God. She was happy to get your letters. She was glad to see your children's photographs. One is 3 years old, the other has the same name as she does. She says Happy Birthday to Brianna with good appetite too!

She asks you to tell her what did you see in China? Is it a beautiful country and what do you like there? Did you visit the entire China.

The child got a good average. She advances to grade 6. Please pray that God may always guide everything.

Briana has a favorite song saying: What a friend we have in Jesus... She likes gospel music best.

The child always prays for your family. She thanks you for the letter and photographs. May God in His love bless you more!